Growing Up Sister Side Stories
by meganechan720
Summary: A collection of drabbles that are exactly as advertized.
1. rebuilding

When Donnie's mind comes under siege from the mind probe, Venus can feel it instantly. She crouches down into a meditative stance, ignoring the strange look Traximus and her brothers give her. Her brother is calling out for his father, but she is there as well, supporting and lifting, fighting the probe. She is surprised at the depth of feeling that shoots through her body. This is _her_ brother! _No one_ messes with him. She'll tear anyone apart who tries. When the danger has passed, she falls back onto her rump abruptly, and sits staring for a few moments, glad to know that despite everything, Donnie means the world to her just as much as the rest of her family.


	2. crush

Usagi brings her a present too: a beautiful blade polishing cloth, which he apologizes for politely as being a mere trifle. She protests in turn, praising its beauty, and she delights in the delicate back and forth as they converse. She begins to understand a little why the Japanese put so much stock in conversation: it is as complicated as a kata, and as thrilling as sparring, but with the grace and partnership of a waltz. By the time he excuses himself to watch the arm-wrestling contest, she is pretty sure she's in love.


	3. family

"Venus is going to stay with me for a few weeks. She'll be over on Tuesday. I thought you should know."

Casey looks up from his pizza at April, startled.

"Huh?"

April rolls her eyes, and Casey remembers to chew and swallow before she even has to remind him.

"Why?" he asks, only slightly more articulately. April toys with the crumbs on her plate.

"Things are a little… strained down there right now," she says. Casey knows that's not it, but he still hasn't figured out how to pry into April's unsaid statements without coming off as pushy, so he just asks,

"So why ain't she here now? If things are strained, I mean. Why come later?"

April sighs, and stands up to clear the table. Casey, sensing that he has once again said something stupid and once again with no idea of what it is, stands as well.

"What? It ain't like it's none of my business, babe. The turtles are like my family, too, you know. Is this a girl thing?" He's flailing now, but April still hasn't turned back around from the sink and he has nothing to go on. "Is she—do turtles get pregnant?"

"Casey!" April finally turns around, exasperated and laughing at the same time. "It's not like that."

"Well, then what is it, babe?" Casey is still a little annoyed, but he can't help answering April's laugh with a small grin of his own.

"I…" She looks at him with those gigantic green eyes, as if trying to make up her mind. Casey just lets her look, trying not to get lost in them. "It's a family matter," she says, frowning and picking up the pizza box. She doesn't do anything with it, just holds it awkwardly, looking steadily at the table.

"Babe." Casey tries to keep the hurt out of his voice. "Ain't I family?"

"Oh, Casey," she says, and she sets down the pizza box and gives him a firm look. "Of course you're family. I just don't know if they'd be comfortable with me talking to you about it. I don't think Venus would have even told me if she'd had a choice."

"Well, okay, but…" Casey is really worried now. He is aware, though dimly and in the back of his head, that the turtles are significantly younger than him and April, and he is abruptly reminded of this fact on occasion, such as now. "Babe, this sounds kinda serious. Are you sure they're okay?"

To his immense surprise, tears bead up at the corner of her eyes, and she turns away again.

"I don't know," she says finally, and Casey feels a cold shiver go down his spine.

"So it is serious," he says flatly, and April lets out a sharp sigh accompanied by a meaningless gesture.

"Yes, I guess it is," she says, temper flaring for a moment, but Casey has at least learned by now that sometimes it's best to let it flare up and then die down. After a moment her shoulders droop and she turns back to him.

"Did she ask you not to say anything?" he offers, when she doesn't speak for a moment. She shakes her head. He spreads him arms, palms up, and waits.

"How much do you know about turtle biology?" she begins.


	4. wine

Like a wine taster preferring different vintages, Venus prefers her brothers' minds in different states, and has taken to wandering around the lair to be close to one or another of them as their moods change.

As soon as Mike picks up a video game controller, she gravitates to the lawn chair next to the couch where he sits. She usually pretends to read, but most of the time she slips into Michelangelo's concentration as he slips into the video game world. It's a little like meditation, she had been surprised to find. His mind goes soothingly blank, and as long as none of her other brothers are near, she can fall into Michelangelo's trance as though it were her own.

Don she prefers when he's planning. Working on his projects is merely putting the plan into action, and he uses that time to think his own thoughts. But while he is sitting at his drafting board or hunched over his computer his brain is totally occupied with the task at hand. It's dizzying sometimes, trying to follow his train of thought which will occasionally make breath-taking switchbacks and zigzagging swoops through calculus equations or principles of physics. Dizzying, but ultimately safe.

Raph is never restful to be around, and she suspects he is bi-polar (euphorias followed by black depressions followed by euphoria again) but riding that euphoria is a vicarious thrill that is almost addicting.

Leo's best moments she tends to experience by accident. Katas are another thing for him to obsess over, meditation rarely gives him the deep trances Michelangelo can get when playing a game he's played a thousand times, and most of the time she can barely read him at all. But sometimes he drops his guard and just plays with his siblings, or stops and enjoys the cherry blossoms in the Battle Nexus in spring, or looks around and feels a deep sense of satisfaction at the fact that his family is safe, and whole, and happy.

On the whole, though, she has never developed a taste for Splinter's mind, which, like a vintage too strong for her tolerance level, is rich and complex and beyond her ken.


	5. brother

_Remember the Reality Check storyline? You know, SAINW and all that? Well, where else would Venus have gone but the Next Mutation Universe? Mwahahahaha._

* * *

><p>Donatello's story is the worst, they all agree, even without having heard Venus' yet. To go to a world where the Shredder was in control, and then watch all their siblings die. It is the picture of hell.<p>

Still, Venus squirms a bit when they turn to her. Don's eyes are red-rimmed and his soul is still troubled, and she is holding him close, with Raph on his other side and Mike on hers. Family all around. It's the only comfort they've ever had, and she hadn't realized until now how precious it is. She doesn't look at Leonardo as she speaks, the few inches of distance he keeps when the rest of them are shoulder to shoulder like a yawning chasm.

"Where I went we weren't siblings at all. The other me was from China and she'd already defeated the Shredder single-handed. She was kind of a jerk actually. I asked her train me, since she'd already mastered her psychic abilities, but all she did was tell me my questions were stupid and that I'd never understand. She and-" _The other Leonardo were dating._ Venus shakes herself and continues with only a small pause."-and I worked together, to stop these Dragon men that they were fighting." Her eyes finally flick over to Leo, but he isn't looking at her, and she is relieved.


End file.
